Between God and Superman

Eli at the UK helm

By Danny Mayer

“We want somebody between God and Superman.”

—James Stuckert, Vice-Chair, UK Board of Trustees, January 2010, speaking on the UK CEO search

I should be honest here and say that not once throughout the entire UK hiring process, from Lee Todd’s stepping down as CEO last Fall on up through the May Day announcement last week of University of Alabama at Birmingham Provost Eli Capilouto’s coronation as the next CEO/President of the University of Kentucky, did I ever think the school would hire a president I might imagine as anywhere approaching “good.” When the same corporate hiring firm that chose the last president is granted the same hiring powers, this time on steroids—a search conducted entirely out of the view of the public with a $700,000 salary allowed to float around publicly as possible compensation—it’s difficult to hold out much hope for things going well.

My disposition might be seen in contrast to Britt Brockman, chair of the Board of Trustees and public face of the UK search committee. In March while still interviewing candidates out of the public eye, Brockman described the candidate pool as “just phenomenal.” Its “depth and breadth of quality” he found “overwhelmingly surprising.” Unlike Board Vice-Chair James Stuckert, who famously said that UK wanted someone between “God and Superman” as UK’s next CEO/President, Brockman was bullish on several candidates, noting on March 24 that he had “already met three to five people that I would be comfortable having as the next president.”

This news was not to be taken lightly. Several months earlier in January, the Florida corporate search firm Greenwood/Asher, who was paid to vet and in some instances actively recruit (as they did with new UK CEO Eli Capilouto) the candidates it put before the Board’s behind-closed-doors hiring committee, had argued that a private search would yield better candidates. Greenwood/Asher claimed that such a search would attract elite administrators from elite-tier schools, sitting presidents from other well-respected schools, well-known politicians—and others wielding great power who might not want their names public.

A private search would also allow it, Greenwood/Asher claimed with the Board’s tacit approval, to assume (for a price) the role of the media: in place of public vetting on the open market, it would privately “deep drill” into candidate backgrounds as a way to glean better information about potential candidates.

Brockman’s assurance that not one, but up to five Supermen Gods were within UK’s fair grasp, was a validation of that deep drilling. Secrecy at its most democratically efficient, or so it seemed.

No gods, no supermen

Fast forward to your next University of Kentucky President, University of Alabama Birmingham Provost Eli Capilouto, voted into the presidency by a unanimous 19-0 vote of the UK Board of Trustees on May 3.

The corporate search firm that didn’t see the value in conducting on-campus interviews gave us a president who betrays no specific knowledge of the place he’s about to assume control over. In fact, Capilouto confessed during his one-day campus vetting tour that he “wasn’t looking for a job at all” before being contacted by Greenwood/Asher about the opening.

In fact, the common theme surrounding Capilouto’s hire has been that the life-long Alabama native does not know UK or Lexington or the state. His only Kentucky tie seems to be that his former boss came from Louisville and that as a generally Republican supporter of political figures he contributed 200 dollars to Mitch McConnell. His short overnight incognito visit the week before accepting the job was his first trip to Lexington; he didn’t even really know much about the (supposedly nationally acclaimed) Top 20 Business Plan.

Here’s Capilouto’s response to a question about the city’s town-gown relations, a topic that in March Britt Brockman assured Lexington residents would be asked of all potential candidates: ”I just don’t know enough to answer this question.”

The new UK CEO’s response was a familiar refrain. Capilouto didn’t have much to say about athletics, campus maintenance and infrastructure issues, salary inequities, student tuition, or political funding (all of which have been prominently covered by the Herald-Leader, the city’s paper of record, in the past four months.) One has to wonder, what the hell were candidates talking about during their interviews with the Board and Greenwood/Asher?

And for a well-vetted, deep-drilled candidate, both the Lexington Herald-Leader and Barefoot and Progressive have quickly found several red flags in Capilouto’s file. In addition to a discrimination lawsuit and numerous UAB faculty refusing to offer even procedural congratulations on the new step-up hire of their old boss, Capilouto has been implicated in a Medicaid lawsuit against UAB. These charges suggest that some of the school’s hospital revenues over a 10 year period in the late 90s and early Aughts came as the result of the hospital defrauding the government—a double-dipping of charges that one whistle-blower estimated at $300 million dollars.

If true, this would mean that part of Capilouto’s reputation as an ingenious generator of federal research medical funds and hospital revenue—the reason he was hired at UK—owes itself to a ten-year period of legally questionable practices. Surely this is something that Greenwood/Asher’s deep drilling might have come across? And if it did, perhaps one of the other highly qualified candidates that Brockman was so high upon might have been a more prudent choice. (Unless we are to believe that all serious candidates routinely have Medicaid-related charges leveled against them.)

But again, I didn’t expect much at all from this hire. Granted, I’m mildly surprised that UK went for “Jewish with an immigrant’s story” for its piece of the multicultural pie—I expected female, maybe Indian, middle-aged or older and crusty—but beyond that, nothing. That a mid-tier-university second-in-charge medical administrator unloved by his faculty for being autocratic was enticed behind closed doors to accept a $650,000 job to run what is, essentially, a publicly funded hospital with its own professional sports team, makes perfect sense to me.

Of course, maybe I’m just a pessimist. Perhaps you agree with Britt Brockman as he’s made the rounds selling UK’s next chief:

“We couldn’t be more happy with this selection.” From BizLex, May 1, “UK selects UAB Provost as new president.”

“He actually exemplifies all of the qualities that we’re looking for in the president.” From BizLex, May 1.

“Eli will have the full confidence of our faculty and our staff.” From the Herald-Leader, May 2, “Trustees pick UAB provost; Finalist Eli Capilouto oversees top medical research campus”

“We are absolutely, totally unified behind Eli Caplouto. We could not be more elated.” From the Herald-Leader, May 4, “UK’s next leader vows to give job his all; Capilouto wins unanimous Board OK”